Recommend me a laptop?

Dells seem pretty decent. The only problem is they appear to have virtually zero driver support for Windows 7 at the moment. You'll be stuck with shitty Vista...

 

Start from here: eBay â€â€œ Laptops Notebooks and items on eBay.com. Find IT on eBay.

Edit the search options on the left side of the screen as you choose. I already selected "Core 2 Duo" for Processor and 2 gigs of RAM. Because if you don't have at least that then your laptop is gonna be out of date pretty fast.

 

Agreed. You know your shit man.

If you want to have a good laptop in three years, get 4 GB RAM and 64-bit compatible hardware.

Everything else is lunch meat.

 

If you're a student you can absolutely use that to get discounts from most vendors. It's great!

You have some options. The first thing I would ask is: are you willing to upgrade? Because for $800 you could get like a tricked-out cheapie that normally runs for $600 designed for Grandma's e-mailing needs, or you could get the lower-end of a somewhat better class of laptop which you could subsequently upgrade as you needed.

As a suggestion coming in at a penny below your stated budget, what about this one? I'm not familiar with the quality of Acer's computers but it seems like a pretty reasonable price. According to the reviews it comes with a Windows 7 upgrade option that becomes active once it hits retail availability in October. And it comes with an HDMI port and a standard VGA port.

 

Acer is pretty nice. I've owned two, they are good quality. Not name-brand quality, but not shit.

EDIT: Haha thanks bkadoctaj

 

Avoid Dell like the plague.

In your budget range, go for a Toshiba, Asus or Acer. All three make very good laptops at an affordable price. The most bang for the buck.

I'd especially take a close look at:

Toshiba Satellite L500-12K 15.6" WXGA (Core2 Duo, 4gig Ram, 500gig Harddisk, ATI Radeon 1gig gfx card)

ASUS U80V 14" WXGA (Core2 Duo, 4gig Ram, 360gig Harddisk, ATI Radeon 512mb gfx card)

Acer Aspire 5739G 15.6" WXGA (Core2 Duo, 4gig Ram, 500gig Harddisk, Nvidia Gforce 1gig gfx card)

All three excellent all-round machines, with some expandability (from 4 to 8 gigs of Ram) and in your approximate price range.

 

Wait, what's wrong with Dell? Maybe I'll hear something like I hear about Macs from Windows fans...

 

go to newegg and read through some reviews and check the best rated ones. you cant go wrong with that website.

 

Poor build quality quite simply. They break down a lot.

Though, their Alienware line is very good, but that range is out of the OPs budget.

(At work, we used to have Dell laptops for our AV stuff. That did not last long, so we shifted over to Acer. Never looked back. Privatly I think you get more from Toshiba and ASUS, which is what my private laptops are. Never had a problem with either three brands.)

 

Interesting. Well, my brother just got a Dell laptop for $499, so we'll see how long it lasts him.

 

Well the probem with Dell is they mix and match components in their machines, sometimes you get good ones that last and sometimes you get shit ones that break, My dad uses a Dell in his office and has had it for about 3 years and it's still going strong!

IMO Get a Toshiba p200/p300 I have a p200 now and its very good, dualcore processor 4gigs of ram and an ATI graphics card, It's a desktop alternative so battery will never be as good as a "notebook" but lasts about 2 hours of web surfing and dosent take long to charge, Also it has a HDMI port which displays full HD, Looks nice on my plasma.

Anyways i wouldnt go for a dell, Just choose something with a make that you can trust (Apart from Sony) hehe.

 

I don't get why people buy socalled desktop alternatives. They're friggin' huge, not easy to lug around. In my philosophy of buying laptops, 15.6" screens are the maximum. That way you won't irritate on you lumbago or whatever carrying it back and fro to work/school or whatever.

Big laptops are expensive alternatives to desktops. If the laptop will just sit on your desk, then get a desktop. You'll get much more performance for your money.

 

Ahh yeah for college, i see well then yeah you will need a small one, well actually i have a desktop alternative so i can plug the gaming keyboard n mouse in n play and also so i can lie on my bed and stick msn on and watch stoner movies on tv.

 

Yea that looks like a good choice.

 

The new Dell and HP models are pretty decent.
As stated above, aim for at least 4GB and 64-bit Vista if you can.

I work as a tech sales spec. so I can help you out.
You can customize a nice Dell for $800.

 

If it has Vista just put Windows 7 on it. No need to wait for it to be officially released. It's pretty much final.